BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - The UAB men's basketball team got the kind of win you might expect over a Division II opponent today, but that doesn't mean that the 96-75 victory over Newberry College wasn't a quality warmup for the upcoming conference schedule.

In fact, head coach Jerod Haase said it was just what his 11-3 team needed at this point in the season.

"Today was not picture perfect by any means, but we played against a team that played some different ways and gave us some different looks," he said after the game. "That's what we want before conference play. We want to see as much as possible in the preseason."

What the Wolves (8-3) gave the Blazers was a scrappy, relentless pursuit on the court.

At the game's 13-minute mark, Newberry tied the Blazers at 15-15. At the end of the first half, UAB led by just eleven after a deep three-pointer at the buzzer by Newberry's Brandon Taylor.

Newberry started the second half aggressively as well, closing the game to just a 6-point Blazer lead at 16:48. Moments later, UAB's Chad Frazier turned the game around with two back-to-back three pointers to push the lead back up to 12.

The game was never close after that.

Frazier ended the game with 18 to lead all Blazers scorers. Others in double digits were C.J. Washington with 17 (he also had 10 rebounds), Fahro Alihodzic and Robert Williams both with 14, and Rod Rucker and Jordan Swing both with 11.

For the game, the Blazers shot 47 percent from the field and 32 percent from the free throw line.

While Haase pointed specifically to the play of Rod Rucker ("he didn't have a great night statistically, but was unbelievable in a lot of ways defensively") and Robert Williams ("he continues to be a catalyst for us in many ways"), he said that it's the total team effort that will benefit the Blazers as they enter Conference USA play.

"We have four, five, six guys who are going to be able to score every night," he said. "It's going to be hard for teams to just focus on one player."

The team has a week off before it opens conference play against Middle Tennessee on January 11 and then enters conference competition at full throttle.

"Now it's chapter two of the season," Haase said. "Right now, everyone's 0-0 in the conference. We've done good things so far, and we just need to continue to grow."

Those "good" things have been impressive, with a 63-59 win over then #16 North Carolina being the most notable. The non-conference three losses against #19 New Mexico, Temple and LSU will motivate the team, Haase said, as the season progresses.

"You always want to take those three losses and do them over, but I'm pleased with our effort, pleased with our attitude, and I absolutely love the guys in our locker room," he said.